Encoresoup:Privacy policy

From Encoresoup - The Ultimate Guide to Free/Open Source Software

At Encoresoup, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit Encoresoup, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Log Files 3 Cookies and Web Beacons 4 Publishing on the wiki and public data 4.1 Identification of an author 5 Sharing information with third parties 6 Security of information 7 E-mail 8 Deletion of content 9 Third Party Advertisements

[edit] Summary

If you only read the Encoresoup website, no more information is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites in general.

If you contribute to Encoresoup, you are publishing every word you post publicly. If you write something, assume that it will be retained forever. This includes articles, user pages and talk pages.

[edit] Log Files

As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Log data may be examined by developers in the course of solving technical problems and in tracking down badly-behaved web spiders that overwhelm the site. IP addresses of users, derived either from those logs or from records in the database are frequently used to correlate usernames and network addresses of edits in investigating abuse of the wiki, including the suspected use of malicious "sockpuppets" (duplicate accounts), vandalism, harassment of other users, or disruption of the wiki.

[edit] Cookies and Web Beacons

We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. One such use is to track your "session" when you log into your account.

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. You will not be able to login to your account when cookies are disabled.

[edit] Publishing on the wiki and public data

Simply visiting the web site does not expose your identity publicly. However when you edit any page in the wiki, you are publishing a document. This is a public act, and you are identified publicly with that edit as its author.

[edit] Identification of an author

When you publish a page in the wiki, you may be logged in or not.

If you are logged in, you will be identified by your user name. This may be your real name if you so choose, or you may choose to publish under a pseudonym, whatever user name you selected when you created your account.

If you have not logged in, you will be identified by your network IP address. This is a series of four numbers which identifies the Internet address from which you are contacting the wiki. Depending on your connection, this number may be traceable only to a large Internet service provider, or specifically to your school, place of business, or home. It may be possible that the origin of this IP address could be used in conjunction with any interests you express implicitly or explicitly by editing articles to identify you even by private individuals.

It may be either difficult or easy for a motivated individual to connect your network IP address with your real-life identity. Therefore if you are very concerned about privacy, you may wish to log in and publish under a pseudonym.

When using a pseudonym, your IP address will not be available to the public except in cases of abuse, including vandalism of a wiki page by you or by another user with the same IP address. In all cases, your IP address will be stored on the wiki servers and can be seen by server administrators and by users who have been granted "CheckUser" access. Your IP address, and its connection to any usernames that share it may be released if we are required to do so by law.

If you use a company mail server from home or telecommute and use a DSL or cable Internet connection, it is likely to be very easy for your employer to identify your IP address and find all of your IP based contributions. Using a user name is a better way of preserving your privacy in this situation. However, remember to log out or disconnect yourself after each session using a pseudonym on a shared computer, to avoid allowing others to use your identity.

[edit] Sharing information with third parties

Except where otherwise specified, all text added to Encoresoup is available for reuse under the terms of the GFDL.

Encoresoup will not sell or share private information, such as email addresses, with third parties, unless you agree to release this information, or it is required by law to release the information.

[edit] Security of information

Encoresoup makes no guarantee against unauthorized access to any information you provide. This information may be available to anyone with access to the servers. This currently includes the people at Dreamhost which provide our web hosting.

[edit] E-mail

You may provide your e-mail address in your Preferences and enable other logged-in users to send email to you through the wiki. Your address will not be revealed to them unless you respond, or possibly if the email bounces. The email address may be used by Encoresoup to communicate with users on a wider scale, and by providing an email address you agree to allow us to do so.

If you do not provide an email address, you will not be able to reset your password if you forget it. However, you may request Encoresoup Admin to enter a new mail address in your preferences.

You can remove your email address from your preferences at any time to prevent it being used.

[edit] Deletion of content

Removing text from Encoresoup does not permanently delete it. In normal articles, anyone can look at a previous version and see what was there. If an article is "deleted", any user with "administrator" access on the wiki, meaning almost anyone trusted not to abuse the deletion capability, can see what was deleted. Information can be permanently deleted by those people with access to the servers, but there is no guarantee this will happen except in response to legal action.

[edit] Third Party Advertisements

We also use third party advertisements on Encoresoup to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).